HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL: Title slips away

Late miscues extinguish Wall's championship hopes

Andrew Mitchell/Standard-Times Wall High School's Kris Gutierrez carries the ball into end zone to score the Hawks second touchdown of the game during their Class 1 Division 2A State Championship matchup against defending champions Cameron Yoe High School at AT&T Stadium Thursday evening, Dec. 19. Wall was defeated 35-14. Shot/Archived: 12.18.13

Patrick Dove/Standard-Times As the game came to an end, Wall High school football players embraced on the sideline of AT&T Stadium in Arlington Thursday night. Wall lost the Class 2A Division I state football game 35-14 to Cameron Yoe. shot/archived 12.19.13

Patrick Dove/Standard-Times Wall High School's Luke Dacy pitches the ball back to Kris Gutierrez during the first quarter of play at the Class 2A Division I State Football Championship against Cameron Yoe at AT&T Stadium in Arlington. shot/archivoed 12.19.13

ARLINGTON — For the majority of the season, the Wall High School football team prided itself on running the football and ball security.

The lack of the latter became the deciding factor in the fourth quarter as the Hawks were defeated 35-14 by Cameron in the Class 2A Division I state championship game Thursday at AT&T Stadium.

Two fourth-quarter fumbles and an interception helped Cameron Yoe outscore Wall 21-0 in the final quarter.

The loss dropped the Hawks, who were playing in their first state title game in program history, to 15-1. The Yoemen (14-1) won their second straight state crown.

"It is disappointing, but you don't get this far without great kids," Wall head coach Houston Guy said. "We have great kids, kids that have persevered and fought through injuries and battled on both sides of the football. We just came out tonight and made some mistakes."

One mistake — allowing a fake punt on fourth-and-5 under the five-minute mark of the third — proved to be the turning point of the tightly-contested game.

Cameron Yoe quarterback Jason Kopriva, who is also the punter, completed a 16-yard pass to Colton Shuffield to continue the drive.

The Yeomen would take advantage as Kopriva completed a 6-yard touchdown pass to Aaron Sims. Following the extra point, Cameron Yoe led 21-14 with 11:19 to play in the fourth.

Two later miscues — specifically fumbles on back-to-back possessions in the fourth quarter — allowed the Yeomen to score 14 more points en route to victory.

Kris Gutierrez, a normally sure-handed running back, was stripped on consecutive offensive drives within a four-minute span. The junior tailback finished with 60 yards and one touchdown.

Wall senior quarterback Luke Dacy admitted the Yeomen defenders were playing a smash-mouth style of football, which rivaled the Hawks run-first attack.

"They did a great job of punishing you, coming up and hitting you, anytime you turned upfield," said Dacy, who ran for 98 yards and threw for 39. "That just started to wear on us. We started holding on to the ball a little looser."

On a positive note, the first-half script mirrored each of the Hawks previous 15 victories.

Offensively, Wall ran the ball, ran the ball again, and kept feeding the ball to its stable of running backs.

On defense, the defensive linemen created pressure from the snap and the defensive backs kept the Yeomen receivers in check throughout the contest.

"It probably did take us a little time to get used to it," Rhoades said of the Hawks rushing attack. "I thought our defensive coaches made great adjustments at half."

Brent Matschek opened up the scoring with a phenomenal 54-yard touchdown run. The senior running back followed his lead blockers and capped off the run with a perfectly-timed cutback that allowed him to evade the final defender on the way to his score.

Matschek ended with 107 yards and one touchdown.

"We were feeling pretty good when we realized that we could move the ball on them," Dacy said. "We were in a good position to win."

Thanks to a 63-yard kick return by Aaron Sims, Cameron Yoe would earn fantastic field position on the Hawks 22-yard line before punching in the equalizer.

Yoeman running back Traion Smith, who had struggled early on, capped off a four-play drive with a 2-yard TD run.

"They were just really shifty on us," Wall senior linebacker Korby Kellermeier said. "We just had too many missed tackles, too many mistakes."

It seemed like momentum was shifting to the defending state champs.

The Yoeman scored the second touchdown of the game — a 2-yard run by Smith —that gave Cameron Yoe its first lead of the game.

But Wall would counterpunch four minutes later, sparked by a fourth-down conversion with less than 20 seconds to play in the second quarter.

Guy showed gumption by electing to go for it on fourth-and-6 from the Yoeman 10. Following the game, Guy admitted it wasn't his idea.

With 17 seconds left, the Hawks ran a sweep play to the weak side and watched as Kris Gutierrez beat the Yoemen defenders to the edge and celebrated in the end zone.

The Hawks would jaunt into their locker room — heads held high — thanks to the calculated risk.

"I knew that we weren't going to win the game kicking field goals," Dacy said. "It was now or never, and it worked out good for us. We were in a good position to win. "But, you know, it just came down to the fourth quarter where we ran out of magic."